Providing telephony services in a communications network
First Claim
1. A method for use in a communications network having network elements for performing telephony services, comprising:
- providing an interface to the network elements;
receiving requests, by the interface, from a software module specifying performance of telephony services; and
sending, in response to requests of the module, commands over a packet-based network to one or more network elements involved in performing the telephony services.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A communications network includes packet-based networks that are coupled to various network elements. A method and apparatus is provided to implement telephony services in the communications network. The architecture for providing the telephony services may include several layers, including a network elements layer, an interface layer, and a services/application layer. The services/application layer is decoupled from the specific implementations of the network element layer so that a more flexible and convenient mechanism is provided to create telephony services. The telephony services may be implemented in software modules written in one of several possible languages, such as a telephony scripting language (TSL) or other language. The interface layer includes various components, including translation components to interpret and execute the modules that are in the services/application layer, communications components to provide mechanisms to send commands to network elements layer to perform the specified telephony services, and representation components that describe the functions, tasks, and other details associated with network elements.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method for use in a communications network having network elements for performing telephony services, comprising:
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providing an interface to the network elements;
receiving requests, by the interface, from a software module specifying performance of telephony services; and
sending, in response to requests of the module, commands over a packet-based network to one or more network elements involved in performing the telephony services. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 27, 28, 29)
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11. An apparatus for providing telephony services in a communications network having network elements comprising:
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a software module containing instructions specifying performance of telephony services in the communications network; and
an interface layer comprising one or more components responsive to execution of the software module to provide commands over a packet-based network to corresponding network elements to perform the telephony services specified by the software module. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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22. A system for use in a telephony network having network elements capable of performing various telephony services, comprising:
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means for storing representations of telephony services;
means for communicating with the network elements; and
means for executing the storing means to specify performance of a telephony service, the communicating means providing, in response to execution of the storing means, commands over a packet-based network to the one or more network elements involved in performing the telephony service. - View Dependent Claims (34)
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23. An article including one or more machine-readable storage media containing instructions for providing telephony services in a communications network, the instructions when executed causing a controller to:
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receive requests from a telephony service software module specifying plural telephony tasks; and
send commands over a packet-based network to one or more network elements in the communications network in response to the requests to perform the specified telephony tasks. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 35, 37)
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26. A data signal embodied in a carrier wave comprising instructions that when executed cause a system to:
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receive requests specifying telephony services from a software module; and
generate commands over a packet-based network to network elements in response to the request to perform the telephony services.
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36. The article of claim 36, wherein receiving requests from the telephony service software module specifying plural telephony tasks comprises receiving requests from the telephony service software module specifying plural telephony tasks over the IP network.
Specification